Graduation

I know, the entries come in streaks. That's because, these days, I never know when I'm going to have a period of time when I can actually sit down in front of the laptop at home for a decent stretch and do this. Lina actually went down earlier tonight. Liz and I are spending some much-needed quality alone time together - her in front of the desktop fifteen feet across the living room and me in front of the laptop on the dining room table. haha. One of the biggest lifestyle changes since becoming parents is not to being able to surf the "internets" at will. So we're getting our fix now.

Anyway, I flew up to Berkeley on Friday for the day to attend my kid sister Joanna's graduation at Cal. I call her my kid sister because she's a whole decade younger than me. I actually remember the day she was born, her crying a lot as a baby, and growing up as a toddler. I remember, like it was yesterday, when she graduated from elementary school. She was wearing this funny-looking poofy dress that my mom probably bought from Japan, and she got to go on stage at Baldwin Stocker Elementary School because she won some prize. She has always been a nerd! Let's not talk about high school graduation because that seems like two seconds ago.

Anyway, she did it again - graduated with high honors at Cal, and got to wear a fancy tassle or rope (or something) and had her name listed separately in the program. No pics yet, I'll post one when my brother uploads them. Anyway, very proud of her. She also got some grant to go study in NYC and Poland this summer, with a bunch of PhD students. I don't know the exact topic, but it has something to do with the Holocaust. Btw, she is a History Major with a Jewish Studies minor. Funny story - a professor from Cambridge, where she studied last summer, asked her, "why is an Asian American girl from California so interested in Jewish Studies?" My mother asks the same thing, but I think it's a fascinating subject matter and it's cool that Joanna has the intellectual curiosity and thirst to pursue this field of study. My parents just worry that history majors won't be able to pay the rent. And I'm jealous that she'll be traveling through NY and Europe this summer to study and play. I remember doing my first backpacking trip in Europe right after college. I'll never willingly live in a hostel again (for vacation), but I'm glad I did it. It's a very special time. Anyway, congrats, Joanna! Before you find your full-time job, I think it would help your resume if you came over here and "interned" as a nanny/night nurse. = )

In just a few weeks we'll be attending my sister-in-law Eunice's graduation also! It's graduation and wedding season, alright. It's summertime...

Memorial Day Weekend Visitors

Got a few more visitors today, which was nice. My buddy Thatcher Bell from Wharton coined the term "baby jail" for this period of time - roughly one month for us - when the baby and mother are recovering and sequestered in the home. Which, of course, is a good thing. I shouldn't complain - it's not exactly like Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest situation, which is completely outrageous. Completely different topic.

Staying home this month helps us to keep the germs away while baby is developing her immune system, and allows Liz to recover a bit from the traumatic experience called Labor and Delivery. However, it's easy to get cabin fever. And besides going to the office in Burbank, and occasional expeditions out to restock supplies, I'm pretty much at home too. So it's always nice when visitors come by.

Here's Warren and Lily - our friends from NY who moved to LA (where Lily, like us, is from originally) a few months ahead of us. They are deep into wedding planning - the ceremony is in two weeks! Nice of them to come by. Kinda looks like their own kid, huh? Their wedding will probably be Lina's first official social "outing."


Here's Emily, or "Ayi 1"according to our Sino-Anglo concocted nomenclature - who brought by some drinks for us from Tea Station in San Gabriel. My personal favorite - the "Iced Peach Black Tea," which I am enjoying at this moment while catching up on the blogging. Thanks Ayi 1!

Memorial Weekend

I love summer. "Summer has always belonged to children," a recent Audi commercial proclaims. Summertime does call up childhood memories of those "endless summer nights," but not in the Richard Marx sort of way. More like playing out in the pool with friends and cousins, summer camps, bbqs with friends, riding our bikes around the neighborhood after futile summer school classes...

On the East Coast, Memorial Day Weekend unofficially kicks off the summer season. Many of our friends are at the Hamptons or the 'Shore (Jersey) this weekend. Either they told me or I see it on their Facebook updates. It just feels like summer is starting. Many companies in Manhattan have "summer hours," although that has never been relevant to folks in my department. For some reason, Memorial Day Weekend doesn't have the same symbolism or feel here on the West Coast. And most people don't have "country homes" or go away for the weekend. It's probably because the weather is relatively mild all year round, and everything is pretty chill anyway. There isn't really a "marker" between seasons. Well, I guess there aren't really "seasons" here. We used to joke that we were going to the "country home," whenever we left NY to visit our parents in LA. So what is the L3 clan doing this long weekend? Nothing - eating, sleeping, and other digestive processes that I won't mention. Can you believe Lina is three weeks old? Like most things in life, it has gone by really fast and really slow. One more week, and the two ladies will be free from house arrest and will be able to go out again into the world!

The last few days have been a bit insane. Every time we think we have a pattern nailed down, the little critter changes things up. Last night was a bit better - she slept from 2am to 7:30am - almost a five and a half hour session, which is huge for this age. The few nights before that were really challenging - hellish, to be more accurate. Thank goodness we have family like Em/Jon and friends like John/Grace and Tim/Grace to give us tips and advice and generally just commiserate with us. Anyway, besides the crazy sleep schedule, we have been really enjoying Lina. It's amazing to see her personality start to come out. Here are some more pictures of our baby...

The Pacifier

I have to admit, the first time we tried a pacifier on Lina, something didn't sit right with me. It seemed like trickery - there obviously isn't any milk coming through it, but the poor thing thinks there is. Well, not my daughter. She full on rejected it - spit it out of her mouth and made a huge scowl. Fatherly pride swelled up within me - no daughter of mine will be fooled into accepting a fake bill of goods, or whatever that phrase is. She will be an independent thinker and won't be a mindless consumer/pawn at the mercy of Corporate America. She will fight for her rights and won't accept all of her government's decisions on foreign policy without questioning motives and other factors. Ok, going overboard.

After several days of fussiness, I am begging God to let Lina accept the pacifier! Anything that works! To be fair, actually, Liz pointed out that the sucking motion is actually soothing to babies. So, it's not just pure trickery. There is a real and legit purpose to it.

Data-Driven Analysis

Data-driven analysis - it's a business school and consulting catch phrase. Taking "data" - which I know is a generic term - and analyzing it to draw conclusions in order to better inform future decisions and actions. When I was a consultant, and now at WMG, we employ "data-driven" analysis to help us make strategic decisions. Well, most of the time. We look at trends and patterns, and try to come up with some meaningful observations.

So we have a spreadsheet to track Lina's behavior. The hospital gave us a simple worksheet to track feedings, but I had to create my own template and take it to the next level. We record the time and duration of each feeding, diaper changes (and type), and even sleeping patterns. What am I trying to figure out? (by the way, with Google Docs I can share this with you if you really want it.)

For example, all the books we read say that newborns should sleep 16+ hours per day. But they don't really break it down into optimal times and duration. If she takes 3 different 3-hour naps during the day, how does that affect her night sleep? What about 4 different 2-hour naps? And what times are optimal for these day naps so that she sleeps longer during the night? You see, I'm looking for the perfect scientific pattern that will yield the optimum sleep at night for Lina, so, selfishly, mommy and daddy can also sleep in peace and regain some (just some) normalcy in life.

I think maybe I'll expand the spreadsheet to include other things as well. If the burps come in the first 3 minutes vs. 5+ minutes, does that lead to a happier "awake and alert" period which leads to a deeper subsequent nap resulting in a better feeding next time which leads to sound night sleep? Hmm, maybe the type of cotton of her "onesies" has an effect too. Certainly Jacadi, Petit Bateau and other French labels are more comfortable and result in better bowel movements and therefore rest?

Oh wait a minute...
She's a baby. Right. And all babies are different. And, within certain guidelines and principles, there's really no science to it? Darn...

The Aunts and Uncles

Like I said, we have huge families! Liz has three sisters - that's right, four girls in total. The eldest sister Emily, and her husband Jonathan, have three kids. I have a brother, sister-in-law, and a sister. Here are some pics. Joanna, my youngest sister is the only one that hasn't met Lina. She's up at Cal finishing up her last semester. I'll be flying up to Berkeley for the day on Friday to attend her graduation - fingers crossed! That'll be the longest that I leave Liz and Lina since May 3rd! Disclaimer: I didn't get permission from each of them to post these pics and have to therefore reserve their right to determine whether these images and representations are considered "good" pictures or not and to replace them with better ones if it is thus determined that they are not, indeed, "good" pictures!

Proud Grandparents and the Family

One of the main reasons we moved back to Southern California is because of our family. Liz and I are both blessed with big boisterous families on both sides. Here are some pics from a few weeks ago, of the proud grandparents. They have all been so helpful. The moms(our moms) have been coming over and cooking us tons and tons of home-cooked meals! Thanks moms! I'll save pics of our siblings - all of Lina's aunts and uncles, for the next post...

First visitors

Lina in a good mood today when I was at work. Hmm...

There's a reason I haven't been posting for a couple of days. We had a couple of "fussy" days. Our friends John and Grace Chan, who had a baby (boy) a few months ahead of us, warned us about this. That once you think you're into a "groove," or a predictable schedule, things change on you! We had three straight days of a pretty good sleep schedule, and then bam, two nights of craziness. Parents will do anything to appease their baby when it's 4am and there is no hope in sight. I actually paid $9.99 on iTunes for an "baby ambient noise" CD - we've been playing the "Ocean Wave" sounds on repeat hundreds of times. Maybe the best $9.99 I've ever spent! For those who are interested, this album is especially designed for babies. A sample of other "songs" on this album - "Vacuum cleaner," "Blowdryer," "Car Noise," "Womb Music," "River sounds." You get the idea. (Definitely a way to save on the A&R costs)

Anyway, Liz and baby are sequestered for one month. The only outing they have been on was a trip to the doctor's on Friday. That was an adventure in itself. It's been nice to have some of our friends come by to visit, aside from our families of course. I promised Val, our buddy from NY who is also from the Pasadena area, that she would get a blog post mention, so here she is! She is the first of our friends from NY to visit. There's a bunch coming in June, and we are looking forward to introducing Lina to them.



Auntie Val, a real estate mogul from NY, was telling Lina about the collapse of the mortgage industry and Lina was obviously very interested...

Here's Uncle Richard hanging out with Lina...Richard was nice enough to bring by flowers for Liz on her first Mother's Day. Even I didn't do anything for that...yet. I know, terrible. Off to a great start, Leonard.


Finally, Auntie Ellen also came by, with treats for me and Liz. A copy of the WSJ and "In Style," along with some fresh strawberries.

Thanks everyone for visiting and giving us a taste of the outside world. Until today, when I went to the office, I've only been taking half hour expeditions every few days to shore up on "supplies" - Vitamin Water, Red Bull, Venti Soy Lattes, and Pampers Swaddlers...(in that order of importance).

By the way, this post took me almost three hours - I had to put Lina down at least three times. I am writing this on the couch, looking at the monitor that Grace and John gave us, and watching her squirm. Makes me very anxious.

Pics of the Day

For some reason, Lina just loves to touch her face. Here she is, grabbing her head, while taking a nap...
I'm enjoying time off from work...although, now I know that this is a LOT more work than even the most demanding of jobs...

Supposedly, newborns have an alert and quiet period one in every ten hours. That sounds about right. Three or four times during the day, Lina will be very peaceful and quiet. She seems to be looking intently at whoever is holding her. As if she's thinking about something, or contemplating something. Then she smiles - which I think is gas or something at this point. Either way, I really enjoy these times of the day. (as opposed to when she's screaming bloody murder at 3am)

Random snapshots from the day

Here's Lina just chilling out in a corner of her crib, with her friends.


Feeling happy after a changing...

Hanging out in her bouncer...

A Day in the Life

So what goes on in the Chen household these days? I'm still in the middle of taking a bit of time off from work, so I've been at home full-time since Lina came into the world. It's been good. I have to admit I sneak a peak or two at the blackberry, but other than that, it is all Liz and all Lina.

Today, it felt like all we did was feed the baby. [skip the following if you're a parent - you already know this]. People warned us about this, but I didn't really understand it until now. Did you know that you have to feed the kid like 8-12 times a day!? And we are (actually, Liz is, not me) breastfeeding, so it is a very time-consuming thing. If you do the simple math, it's about every three hours at the minimum. So you think to yourself, hmm, that's not crazy, right? Wrong. It is. Because the process goes something like this:

Step 1: Get the baby ready to feed

• change the diaper(s) - 2-3 minutes
• mommy gets ready - 5 minutes

Step 2: Feed the baby

• 30 minutes to 60 minutes, depending on whether the baby is sleepy or not (ours almost always is)
• burp the baby halfway through (5-10 minutes)

Step 3: Burp / Change again

• burp again - 5 minutes sometimes less, sometimes more
• change diapers again (if applicable) - 2-3 minutes
• Swaddle the baby - 2-3 minutes

Step 4: this is the part no one tells you about: if the baby is fussy - and Lina sometimes is because, let's face it, getting smacked in the back repeatedly by the old man (burping) is not exactly a peaceful experience - it can take a very long time to soothe the baby back into a state of peacefulness or sleepiness.

Anyway, my point here is just that it's not as simple as a single event every three hours. This "event" almost takes up the entire three hours. So, today, it really felt like all we did was feed, burp, change, rock, repeat...

Liz and I are really enjoying Lina. We feel like we are getting to know all these little things about her - it's pretty amazing. A colleague recently told me this, regarding becoming first time parents - "all the good things you imagine about being a new parent - it's all true, and a million times more than you imagine. All the challenging things you imagine and have heard about - that's also true, and much more than you ever imagine." It's so true. I should do another post listing all the interesting things people have said to me about becoming a parent. There are some really wise things and some really funny things.

Random thought - the backdrop to all of this is that I've been following the events in China and Burma online (in between feedings). I can't even fathom the extent and magnitude of the human misery that is going on. And the military junta keeping aid from reaching their citizens. sigh. Sorry, what a buzz kill.

Some more pics of Lina

Here are a few more pictures of Lina...

I've never been more paranoid about organizing our digital assets and backing them up. My brother is helping us set up a back up system so we don't lose any of these pics. Is life in the digital world really that much more convenient? (Read in a "Carrie-esque" tone)

Swaddled in the hospital...



Here's a picture with cousin Noah, who is only 2 months older. Can you believe it!? I think Noah is going to be one tough dude. I'm glad that he'll be able to protect his cousin! That's comforting to me - I'll have to just buy one shotgun now instead of two.





Don't be fooled - she isn't always this peaceful and isn't always sleeping!

How it all went down

So how did it all go down, you ask?

For a couple of weeks we were expecting Lina to come early, as suggested by Liz's doctor. However, by last Friday, we had stopped expecting her to come early. After having dinner at Hong Kong Cafe on Sawtelle and Olympic on Friday night, we came home and watched "Without a Trace" and "Cold Case" on the DVR until the wee hours of the night, fully expecting to have one last weekend before the big day. While preparing to retire for the night, Liz yelled out, "Leonard, uh, I think my water just broke..."

What proceeded was nothing like the movies. We didn't drop everything, grab the bags, and drive through the city streets at 100mph to get to the hospital, then park curbside and run into triage screaming bloody hell with the baby half way out. We called the doctor, who calmly instructed us to get to Cedars Sinai in the next hour and a half. We called our families, who were all sleeping, packed a few last-minute things into our overnight bag, and even tidied up the apartment a bit. I actually spent a good half hour clearing out some work-related emails and letting folks know that there's a reason I won't be dialing into the weekend conference call.

The drive from our place in West LA to Cedars Sinai in Beverly Hills was actually pretty quick - 15 minutes tops. There was a surreal, and appropriate, peacefulness to it all. We arrived, checked in to the hospital at around 3:30am, and Lina came into the world at 11:03am. From 3:30am until 9:30-ish, things were actually pretty chill. We were given a very nice delivery room, with a panoramic view of the the Hollywood Hills. There was a lot of paperwork, monitoring of Liz, and general down-time before kick off. We even had a couple of hours to nap - Liz on the hospital bed hooked up to some IVs and me on a couch next to her. Again, it was peaceful and very surreal to watch the sun rise over the 'Hills. I have some pics on another camera that we didn't upload yet.

At around 9:00am, our Doctor and a couple of nurses came into the room. Before I knew it, it was showtime at the Apollo. I think I'll save the details of the rest for never and maybe talk about thoughts and reactions next time...

Anyway, that's how it went down.

Angelina "Lina" Ruth Chen - The first few pictures

Hey folks, as promised, here are a few pics to start off...

Our daughter - Angelina "Lina" Ruth Chen - was born on May 3rd at 11:03am PST. She came in at 7 lbs. and 21 inches. We are thankful that she is healthy and adjusting to post-womb life very well. Mommy - Liz - is also recovering and doing well.

In short - it has been simply amazing. I took a ton of pics but will need a bit of time to get organized. See the last picture for a glimpse of me in action. I can't get the layout to work properly here on Blogspot, but I have no time to fix that now. Off to do some burping...

Thanks for everyone's thoughts, prayers, love, and support. Talk to you all soon!